Abstract
The main concern of this research is to "advance knowledge for promoting progress, and for enabling [women) to relate more effectively to [their] environment"(Cohen and Manion, 1985:43). It hopes to achieve this objective by questioning the spaces in which women evolve with a view to find out whether these spaces offer encouragement for their personal development and ultimately how conducive this is to national development. Their perception is an important element since, in my view, self-image is a crucial enabler for personal development. It concentrates on an important component of personal development, that is, psychological empowerment. This project should be seen in the broader context of analysing development, through the Socio-Economic and Gender Analysis Approach (SEGA). This approach sees development as a multifaceted process of increasing not only standards of living but also control over and definition of those standards. Development has social, political and cultural dimensions, as well as economic components. "It is a liberating process by which formerly excluded and subordinate social [and gender] groups not only transform their physical environment, but also gain power over their economic and political environment and over the knowledge, skills and other resources needed to sustain this transformation (Rowan-Campbell 1999:86). This, in my view, is psychological empowerment. In this context, personal development refers to a sense of confidence and the ability to overcome internalised oppression as well as the capacity that they have developed to negotiate and influence the nature of a relationship. (Rowlands, l997a in Townsend et al, 1999). National development refers to the harnessing of all resources including material and psychological for all-round progress of the country . This project looks at middle class married and working women. It therefore considers three domains: class, marriage and occupation. It questions these domains-namely which are seen as spaces which middle class women have access to, to express their personality. A combination of these spaces should give us a dynamic picture of how middle class women evolve as human beings, contextually empowered or disempowered. Empowerment in this case refers also to psychological strength that the system equips the women with to understand their socio-cultural environment. The word empowerment is often used in gender-related literature. However, I define empowerment as the capacity to get things moving. Most of the time financial means enable women to get things moving in their lives. In this case empowerment is of mostly a material nature: it refers to financial independence. There are however, times when reportedly, financial means are diverted to other quarters, e.g. in cases where men take over their wives' income and space for action (see for example, Mirsky and Radlett, 1999). Sometimes, empowerment is seen as "shakti" the energy within women, which generates the power to act (Liddle and Joshi, 1986:2). Gradually with the expansion in the literature regarding women and gender issues, in my opinion, empowerment has locally become an overused word whose meaning tends to become obscure. This is despite the fact that it retains all its loaded meaning as it is used by Rowlands (1997a). This word is very rarely used I this project. Personal development is seem as a more appropriate term since it is gradual, incremental and more general. It is not a flash in the pan item referring to only one aspect of personal development -e.g. financial comfort does not necessarily mean overall personal development. The frequency with which this then is used locally, the fact that it is so much divested of its real meaning account for its very sparse use in this project. This project does seek to develop a research framework to measure degrees of empowerment. Whenever it is used, "empowerment" will mean the capacity to reason out circumstantial barriers and to act accordingly. Thus, this project seeks to analyse:
⢠How married and working middle-class women view education as an enabling factor for their personal development;
⢠The role of husbands in their personal development and the extent to which marriage and
family provide a space for this;
⢠The degree to which their occupation helps them in their personal development
⢠The perceptions of the women under study and those of their husbands;
⢠The extent to which women believe their personal development can contribute to national development. If so, how? And
⢠whether the Mauritius College of the Air can play a significant and positive role in enhancing both personal and national development by dispensing appropriate distance⢠learning courses .
Thirty working women from a stratified middle-class are studied through face-to-face interviews as well as a pre-determined questionnaire. The perceptions of their husbands are also gathered to give an overall and well-balanced picture. The views of the husbands are very important given the increasing feminist recognition of the key role of men in positing women for personal development. It hopes to determine the degree to which marriage provides a fertile crucible for the optimisation of women's personal development as fostered by education and whether distance education can be a mode of study that can positively enhance personal development as well as the women's contribution to national development. I am deliberately silent on issues related to culture and religion since these will give rise to debates that cannot be discussed in the context of this research.